Indiana Cop Who Pushed Paraplegic Man From Wheelchair Keeps Job

This story broke a few days ago but I didn't see anything posted about it. First, here's the video of the incident from YouTube:



The paraplegic man in the wheelchair is Nicholas Kincade, age 25 and the cop is Lt. Tom Davidson of the Lafayette Police Department. The incident happened in October of 2013 when cops responded to a call about a man possibly carrying a gun near a charter school. No gun was found, only a pocket knife that Mr. Kincade stated was carried for protection.

Mr. Kincade was threatened with being charged for trespassing and told to leave at which point he began moving his motorized wheelchair forward. Rather than stepping out of the way, the cop stands there arms folded until the wheelchair touches his foot, then he shoves the disabled man's head with both hands, toppling him and his wheelchair.

Originally the cops arrested Mr. Kincade, charging him with battery on a law enforcement officer (what the f#?!) but the charge was dismissed five months later. There wasn't much disputing of the facts of the incident:

School officials told officers to inform Kincade that he wasn’t welcome near the school. Police told him he could be charged with trespassing and ordered him to leave.

According to Chief Patrick J. Flannelly, Kincade started preparing his backpack and chair to leave as requested. Kincade moved forward and ran over Davidson’s foot, “at which point Lieutenant Davidson pushed Kincade and the wheelchair, causing it to tip over and Kincade to fall out and onto the street,” according to Flannelly.

source

Despite an internal investigation by the department which concluded that Lt. Davidson had violated department policy and a recommendation by Chief Flannelly that he be terminated, this jerk is keeping his job with what amounts to a slap on the wrist! From the same source as the previous excerpt:

The Lafayette Police Civil Service Commission—a group of five citizens tasked with hiring, discipline and promotion within the department—conducted a hearing and found Davidson guilty of unbecoming conduct in a 5-0 vote. In a 3-2 vote, the commission found Davidson was not in violation of the response to resistance policy.

The Merit Board decided not to fire Davidson. Instead, he was given a 30-day unpaid suspension, demoted and placed on probation for a year.

I can't imagine what was going through the minds of the members of this merit board that they would choose to allow this bully to keep his job! Is it so hard to find cops who are decent people that the only option is to let this man continue to carry a badge and a gun?

UGH.

That's pretty bad. That cop is obviously a major A-Hole. However, I think I may have something here that tops it. (Not that I'm trying to one up you or anything, just thought you'd find it to be interesting as well.)

Here's my thread I made a few days ago, that makes the cop you're talking about look like a sweet heart!

Cops Kill 19 y/o Kid - Ruled as Homicide & Still Nothing

originally posted by: mOjOm
That's pretty bad. That cop is obviously a major A-Hole. However, I think I may have something here that tops it. (Not that I'm trying to one up you or anything, just thought you'd find it to be interesting as well.)

Here's my thread I made a few days ago, that makes the cop you're talking about look like a sweet heart!

Cops Kill 19 y/o Kid - Ruled as Homicide & Still Nothing

Wow. That is horrible. Thanks for linking back to that, I don't know how I missed it. Reminds me a bit of this thread from a late May: Tortured to death by Miami PD (it was actually while in DOC custody despite title)

A friend of mine's younger brother died in police custody. He hung himself in a holding cell of some sort and video showed an officer responding to another inmate's shouts, see the young man (18 or 19) hanging in his cell and rather than saving his life, walk away purportedly to smoke a cigarette with another officer! The cop was terminated, there was an out of court settlement but nobody did a day in jail.

Very disturbing.

a reply to: theantediluvian

Report of the disabled man carrying a gun on school premises, which would surely need to be checked out... Though pushing him over in his wheelchair seems unwarranted, he was no threat to the officers, on the face of it.

We don't know what went on before the filming started though...

originally posted by: MrJohnSmith
a reply to: theantediluvian

Report of the disabled man carrying a gun on school premises, which would surely need to be checked out... Though pushing him over in his wheelchair seems unwarranted, he was no threat to the officers, on the face of it.

We don't know what went on before the filming started though...

Certainly it warrants investigation but no gun was found and the shoving occurred after they'd searched him and asked him to leave the area. If the department's internal investigation concluded that the cop was in violation of department policy and the Chief of Police recommended his termination, I'm going to assume that there's not a whole lot more to the story than what I gleaned from the 4-5 articles I read about it.

Let's be clear. The Police Chief wanted him terminated 3 CITIZENS let him keep his job.

The stupidity ...

a reply to: OccamsRazor04

I do believe its government policy to make the public more afraid of the police than they have ever been before and it can be seen by the reaction of some of the nastier men that have got jobs within the force.

I also would wonder whether we give enough thought to what happens when one of these thug-type ex officers hits the street having lost his job and now with a chip of his shoulder - is he more dangerous in uniform or out of it, as he seems to evade prison for his offences and I doubt this is the first he could have been disciplined for.

a reply to: Shiloh7

Police of today are not the same men they used to be.

a reply to: theantediluvian
I wonder if citizen review boards were run like juries if cops would not be so...thuggish?
I bet more people would go for jury duty.
Thugs with badges, good thing the majority are not bad, only apologists and enablers...

a reply to: theantediluvian

Cop must have been a bully in high school. If this cop can do this to an unarmed civilian in a wheel chair, think what he's capable of doing to unarmed civilians who are not disabled. Cop should have been fired, period.

The justice system doesn't work in getting rid of bad apples... The people of that city need to start hanging posters of this cop pushing that poor unarmed paraplegic civilian from his wheelchair on every street corner... then see how long he has a job!

The wheelchair does roll over the cops feet. You can see the movement of the chair bumping over his foot. It was probably a knee jerk reaction to the pain of that heavy chair with a fully grown male in it crushing his foot.

a reply to: theantediluvian

LEO's have the idea that they are above the law and their rights are superior to those of civilians.

I wonder where they got that impression? What if people showed up to voice their concerns at the officers home?

originally posted by: Ezappa
The wheelchair does roll over the cops feet. You can see the movement of the chair bumping over his foot. It was probably a knee jerk reaction to the pain of that heavy chair with a fully grown male in it crushing his foot.

The cop takes 3 steps after he pushes him over and firmly plants the foot that you're speculating was painfully crushed. He at no point jerks his foot back and there's not the slightest limp or hesitation. In fact, the cop doesn't even LOOK at his foot. After shoving him to the ground, the cop walks up to him and stands over him.

a reply to: InverseLookingGlass
I wonder if this pigs family are aware of what he did. I think he would deserve to have photos and the video sent to every member of his family so they can see what slime he really is. If they the don't already know !

a reply to: MrJohnSmith

We don't know what went on before the filming started though...

Please mr smith tell what possibly could have happened before the filming started that would have justified what the cop did?!

a reply to: Ezappa

So who has better mobility, the guy in the wheel chair? Or the cop?
I am not going to say that he let the guy run over his foot, but he damn sure didn't make any attempt to move his foot out of the path of the wheelchair.
And I know he doesn't have to move out of the way, but you would think a decent human being would do so.

a reply to: Sremmos80
Of course he didn't move. He PURPOSELY stood in the way, taking up as much space as possible. This is STANDARD behavior amongst the government thugs, because they are so precious that if you simply brush by them the think they can chain you, kidnap you, and throw you in a cage for "assault". This is one of the MANY reasons they are NOT welcome on my property or in my home, ever.

We have truly been placed in an unsafe situation all across this country. Consider: they trespass, violate, assault, murder, and demean on a DAILY basis, and we are told to change the system. My question is how, when the people making up the system CLEARLY do not want it to change.Write your congressman? what good will that do except perhaps put you on a list of possible 'troublemakers". Peaceful resistance? It will simply get you sprayed and tazered if you are LUCKY. I want people to do their research, and notice any number of gatherings of armed citizens in NUMBERS, the thugs just stand back with that sullen look because they know they will get their @$$ shot off if they engage a group. But, find video of a SINGLE, LEGALLY armed citizen, and they show up in droves, and infringe upon rights, steal property, and assault the very citizens that pay their salary through exorbiant(spelling?) taxes. They are cowards. alone they are nothing. They have taken away all peaceful means of protest by the very fact that they are backed by and have the CLEAR endorsement of the courts which are supposed to redress wrongdoings. When it finally does come tumbling down in this country, many of these thugs will die, simply because at that point, the huge leviathan like system that backs them up will no longer apply, due to self destruction. The only options LEFT are to either avoid them at all costs, bow and scrape, or open fire. I avoid them at all costs, because I do not want to be in a cage when it hits the fan. The best advice anyone can give is to lay low, prepare, arm yourself and TRAIN with your chosen weapons, as well as getting physically fit. Get ready for the fight that is coming. a reply to: theantediluvian